Although I know there's probably no danger involved with this house—which has a bonafide, funnel-shaped opening in the middle of it—there is something ominous about this Nobuhiro Tsukada-designed Earth House, which is connected directly to the terrain below it.

The inspiration for the concrete house design comes from the client, who, looking for privacy in his exurban Tokyo home, wanted all the rooms to open into a courtyard. But the courtyard would have been too small, so instead, they filled the tunnel-like space with earth and created the courtyard on the second-story, enclosing it on all sides with graceful, swooping walls. The generous use of skylights still allows for plenty of natural illumination, and more importantly, privacy from the outside world.

But still, I'd probably have nightmares about that funnel sucking everything down into the Earth's core. [Architonic via Architizer]